Note that this is not a claim about organizations becoming generically progressive or liberal, or about women being progressive-leaning. It’s a much more specific claim: that institutions in the US became much more social justice-oriented/woke in  (a specific belief system held by some progressives) and that the cause of this was a growing number of women entering the workforce. However, this claim (if it were true) would imply, among other things, that women are far more social justice-oriented/woke than men in the US. So, are women more woke than men?

As we’ll see, the difference between women and men in how social justice-oriented/woke they are is actually pretty modest in the US! Because of that, the data below provides pretty strong (though not perfect) evidence against the claim being made. If women are that much more woke than men, then it’s hard to explain organizations becoming more social justice-oriented on the basis of a rising fraction of women. Note: I weakened my claims in this post a bit as I updated the calculations with more polls.

Let’s go through the numbers.

YouGov 2024: only 18% of men and 19% of women identify as woke.

And here are the results from our site http://PersonalityMap.io, which provides access to >1 million human correlations.

Note that a correlation of 0.10 is extremely small (the average magnitude of correlation between totally random pairs of statements is about 0.10), and these are all for the US:

Correlation between being a woman and…

• “I identify as a social justice advocate or as woke”: r=0.05

• “I am in favor of giving women preference in hiring and promotion because of past discrimination.” r=0.12

• “Due to past discrimination, blacks should be given preference in hiring and promotion over other groups.” r=0.07

• “There are only two genders.” r=-0.08

• “In terms of your political views, to what extent are you conservative rather than liberal?” r=-0.08

–

Some people shared more links to polling results (in the comments). Here’s what those look like (once I converted them to correlations with being a woman):

Gallup 2023 US poll (treating identification with conservative as +1, moderate as 0, liberal as 1)

–

Correlations of being a woman with conservatism:

Among 18-29 year olds: r=-0.15

Among 30-49 year olds: r=-0.09

Among 50-64 year olds: r=-0.13

Among 65+ year olds: r=-0.12

NBC / SurveyMonkey US Poll 2025 (treating agree as 1 and disagree as 0):

–

Correlations of being a woman with agreeing “there are only two genders”:

Among 18-29 year olds: r=-0.18

Among 30-44 year olds: r=-0.08

Among 45-64 year olds: r=-0.12

Among 65+ year olds: r=-0.05

And here’s the strongest one, but it’s still a relatively modest correlation.

–

Correlations of being a woman with agreeing with “DEI programs being helpful”:

Among 18-29 year olds: r=0.25

Among 30-44 year olds: r=0.17

Among 45-64 year olds: r=0.19

Among 65+ year olds: r=0.12

–

These correlations mean that women are only modestly (before I wrote *negligibly* but I think that’s too small now, having updated with these latest numbers from these other polls) more social justice-oriented/woke than men – not nearly enough, in my opinion, for women’s growing role in the work force to explain changing institutional norms.

The group where correlations are highest is 18-29 year olds, who make up only approximately 20ish percent of the US workforce. For older cohorts (which make up most of the women in the workforce), the correlations are weaker.

Sources:

http://PersonalityMap.io

YouGov (you have to click through to the survey): https://today.yougov.com/…/50975-few-americans…

https://news.gallup.com/…/women-become-liberal-men…

https://www.nbcnews.com/…/young-men-women-are-taking…

This piece was first written on October 30, 2025, and first appeared on my website on November 10, 2025.

For instance, I think some people believe that large, positive change usually comes about due to one or more of the following:

(1) Progress – technological and scientific advancement causing a rising tide that lifts most boats (e.g., futurists). Change is caused by our discoveries and creations.

(2) Capitalism – large numbers of individuals in pursuit of selfish desires create numerous mutually beneficial exchanges (e.g., objectivists). Change is caused by each of us looking out for ourselves.

(3) Culture – individuals choosing to be more selfless, pro-social, helpful, or loving through large-scale societal or cultural change (e.g., hippies). Change is caused by each of us changing.

(4) Heroes – the indomitable will of rare, heroic individuals who work tirelessly to cause a specific change (e.g., entrepreneurs). Change is caused by a single person.

(5) Education – thorough and proper education instilling appropriate skills, discipline, and values in the young. Change is caused by looking after the next generation.

(6) Communities – local groups discussing the problems in their communities and working as collectives to solve them (e.g., community leaders). Change is caused by groups acting locally.

(7) Government – democratically elected governments looking out for the interests of the people, thoughtfully enacting laws, and allocating tax dollars to solve social problems (e.g., liberals). Change is caused by the government acting intelligently for the good of society.

(8) Philanthropy – wealthy, altruistic donors and investors taking bold actions that are unencumbered by bureaucracy and politics in order to create and fund effective solutions that no one else will (e.g., philanthropists). Change is caused by innovative top-down strategizing and intelligent allocation of resources.

Of course, these ideas are not mutually exclusive and often work synergistically. Education can change culture, capitalism can lead to progress, and philanthropists can fund heroes. But who is ultimately more right about how the world usually gets substantially better? I think there is substantial truth in all of these ideas.

(1) Sometimes, technological and scientific progress really does make the world substantially better, for instance, through the discovery of antibiotics and the creation of technologies to produce and distribute them in large quantities.

(2) Sometimes, capitalism does stimulate rapid increases in wealth that help both the wealthy and the poor, for instance, arising in the wake of a poorly centrally planned economy that has recently become more open.

(3) Sometimes, culture does shift in a positive direction, such as when society becomes less tolerant of prejudice.

(4) Sometimes, individual heroic people do fight tirelessly for years and end up causing an important change much earlier than it would have otherwise occurred, such as when activists fight for human rights or entrepreneurs accelerate the creation of a new life-saving medical technology.

(5) Sometimes, better education can make a tremendous difference, for instance, when literacy rates start low and can be greatly improved, or when children do not have good role models at home but can find them at well-run schools.

(6) Sometimes, community members do collaborate effectively to solve their own problems, and if enough communities do the same, it can amount to widespread change.

(7) Sometimes, governments do solve major problems, such as when they ban dangerous but commonly-used substances or when they efficiently reallocate some money from those who have way more than they need to those who don’t have nearly enough.

(8) Sometimes, philanthropists do create ambitious plans for changing the world that actually work, for instance, strategies for eradicating a disease in a specific area.

While each of these approaches does contain some truth, that doesn’t mean that each approach is equally likely to be the cause of any particular potential improvement. I’d expect that the opposite is more likely: for any particular societal improvement, one or two of these approaches is much more likely to be the cause of it than the others. But I suspect that the most effective approach will vary substantially depending on the type of improvement.

So if you’re wedded to the idea that one of these is THE ANSWER to how the world will improve broadly, I think you’re going to be wrong a lot about what turns out to end up helping.

This essay was first written on February 24, 2018, and first appeared on this site on June 17, 2022.

One notable feature of extreme improvements, as opposed to medium-sized ones, is that they probably won’t just happen to you by chance. Medium-sized improvements can occur randomly, so it’s harder to confirm whether positive results are related to some purposeful change you’ve made. More extreme positive changes are unlikely to happen randomly, so you can be more confident that any effects are related to your efforts; coincidence could still come into play, but it is less likely.

Below is a list of very intense interventions that seem to (every once in a while) totally change a person’s life. They come with varying degrees of danger and side effects. If you’ve felt the need for improvement, yet have made limited progress despite many attempts to change, one of these intense interventions may get you unstuck. Though I recommend trying the safest ones first.

Disclaimer: some of these interventions are capable of causing substantial harm. Try them at your own risk, and always research and evaluate the risks first. The associated risks I mention are neither all-encompassing nor exhaustive. 

List of Extreme Interventions that are Occasionally Life Changing

BIOLOGICAL

1. Extended fasting (e.g., only water, no food, plus a daily multivitamin to make it somewhat safer) or intermittent fasting (e.g., don’t eat until 3 pm each day, or only eat every other day, or don’t eat any food on the weekend) [risks include GERD, malnutrition, dehydration, gallstones, tiredness, cognitive fuzziness, impaired decision making]

2. Triple chronotherapy (i.e., one 24 hour period of total sleep deprivation, followed by going to bed for the next three nights at the time when the sun sets – or 6 hours earlier than normal – sleeping about 7 hours each of those nights, and using a very bright light such as a strong S.A.D. light as soon as you wake up each morning) [risks include poor judgment during the intervention, temporary sleep deprivation-induced insanity, and post-intervention insomnia]

3. Large amounts of moderately intense exercise daily (e.g., 1 hour on an elliptical machine) or shorter amounts of extremely intense exercise daily (e.g., 20 minutes of HIITs or sprinting with short breaks, making sure to get a “runner’s high” each time if possible) [risks include injuries of many forms and rhabdomyolysis]

4. Drastic long term diet change (e.g., completely quitting sugar, going vegan, going paleo, cutting out “inflammatory” foods, cutting out all gluten, drinking way more water, a ketogenic diet with very low carbs with reduced protein until your body switches to using ketones for fuel, etc.) [risks include fatigue, cognitive fuzziness, muscle loss, severe nutritional deficiencies, and severe negative biological reactions to a restricted or new diet]

5. Standard medical treatment used for previously undiagnosed medical problems (e.g., a CPAP machine to treat sleep Apnea, insulin to treat diabetes, thyroid supplementation for people with thyroid issues, vitamins for vitamin deficiencies, etc.) [may lead to multiple side effects depending on the treatment]

6. Significant weight loss (if you feel you are substantially overweight and that it is causing you substantial problems) [risks include fatigue, cognitive fuzziness, muscle loss, gallstones, dehydration, malnutrition, impaired decision making]

7. Surgical interventions for medical issues (e.g., LASIK for bad vision or sinus surgery for breathing problems) [risks include all sorts of problems from surgical error and complications]

8. The Betty Dodson Method for female anorgasmia in women [risks include desensitization to other forms of stimulation]

9. Electroconvulsive therapy (e.g., for extreme treatment-resistant depression) [risks memory loss and cognitive impairment]

PHARMACOLOGICAL

1. Psychiatric medication for mental health issues (e.g., antidepressants for depression, or lithium for bipolar disorder) [risks include fatigue, weight change, severe sexual side effects, loss of emotionality]

2. Psychedelics (e.g., ayahuasca or psilocybin) [risks include impaired judgment, forming radical false beliefs, and triggering mania or psychosis]

3. Low doses of ketamine (e.g., for treatment-resistant depression) [risks include numerous potential side effects]

4. Microdosing (e.g., taking a tiny amount of psilocybin or L.S.D. once per week for a few weeks) [risks include impaired judgment and triggering mania or psychosis]

5. Placing very bright lights throughout your home (used during the day) [risks include eye damage and fire hazards]

6. Quitting drugs or alcohol [risks include extreme withdrawal symptoms which, in some cases, are dangerous]

7. Quitting cigarettes [risks include extreme withdrawal symptoms for some people]

PSYCHOLOGICAL

1. Daily meditation (e.g., 20 minutes each morning) or long silent meditation retreats (e.g., ten-day Vipassana events) [risks include dissociation, mental breakdowns and triggering mania or psychosis]

2. Therapy for mental health issues (e.g., Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for depression or anxiety, therapy for an eating disorder, therapy for O.C.D., therapy for PTSD, therapy for alcoholism, etc.) [risks include re-experiencing trauma, uncovering unpleasant truths, and unpredictable psychological shifts]

3. Therapy for general well-being (i.e. to gain insight, feel more accepted, learn to modify your behaviors, learn emotional control strategies, or improve relationships) May include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectic Behavior Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Gestalt Therapy, Psychodynamic Therapy, Family Therapy, Behavioral Activation, Humanistic Therapy, Existential Therapy, Interpersonal Therapy, Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy, Internal Family Systems, etc. [risks include re-experiencing trauma, uncovering unpleasant truths, and unpredictable psychological shifts]

4. Near-death experiences (obviously you should never do this on purpose, but it sometimes happen against our own will)

5. Altruism in an emotionally intense context, such as volunteering to work with dying children [risks include depression or despair]

6. Ultra-stimulus deprivation (e.g., only eat bland healthy foods and drink water, don’t watch T.V. or play video games, don’t masturbate or look at porn, don’t use social media, don’t read fiction if you find it addictive, etc.) [risks include depression, boredom or numbness]

7. Cultivate self-compassion (e.g., reading the book “Self-compassion”)

8. Building a “map” of your own psychology, beliefs, or value system (e.g., by asking why you care about each thing that you think you care about, asking why you believe each of the important things you believe, and asking why you take each important or harmful behavior that you take, and in doing so trying to dig to the root of your values, beliefs, and behaviors – for instance, try our Intrinsic Values Test to get started) [risks include uncovering unpleasant truths, developing new fears, and unpredictable psychological shifts]

9. Fully accepting an extremely difficult or hard to accept truth that you have been in denial about [risks include depression and anxiety]

10. Quitting playing video games if you are addicted [risks include temporary boredom or feelings that life is dull]

11. Developing compassion for all beings (e.g., through compassion meditation or visualization) [risks include social isolation]

12. Exposure therapy or rejection therapy for introversion or social anxiety [risks include intense anxiety, making others feel uncomfortable if not done properly, or temporary experiences of rejection]

13. Viewing a moving presentation or lecture that convinces you to focus on the important things in life (e.g., the Last Lecture) [risks include depression]

14. Reading a life-changing book (e.g., books I’ve heard people say changed their lives, though I haven’t read them all, include, “Feeling Good,” “When Panic Attacks,” “Peace is Every Step,” “Self-Compassion,” “The Forever Decision,” “How To Control Alcohol,” “The Power of Habit,” “Man’s Search for Meaning,” “Gift of Fear,” “The Power of Vulnerability,” “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck,” “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff,” “Codependency No More,” “The Power of Now,” “Models: Attract Women Through Honesty,” “The Five Love Languages,” “Why Does He do That”) [risks include developing false beliefs, trusting potentially bad advice, and unpredictable psychological changes]

15. Being mindful about emotions you are feeling in the body and when those emotions change (e.g., by tracking on a note pad each time you notice your emotion change for one week, and jotting down how and why you think it changed each time)

16. Using the “Focusing” technique to gain self-insight [risks include developing false theories about yourself or unpredictable psychological shifts]

17. Succeeding at something that previously seemed impossible for you (or perhaps anyone) to do (e.g., firewalking or a challenging physical feat that you train for) [risks include negative psychological effects of failing and injury attempting the feat]

18. Quitting something you have been addicted to for a long time (e.g., alcohol, porn, sugar, cigarettes).

IDENTITY-RELATED

1. Devoting yourself totally to a cause much bigger than yourself (e.g., joining an extreme or radical tight-knit movement or community that has a big mission) [risks include devaluing yourself, accidentally joining a cult, imprisonment, and forming false beliefs]

2. Going public with an identity that you’ve been keeping secret or beginning to live in line with that identity (e.g., going public with the fact that you are gay or polyamorous or that you identify with a gender that’s different than the one you were assigned at birth) [risks include anxiety and social rejection]

3. Committing yourself to an extremely challenging goal, such as climbing a mountain or racing in an Ironman Triathlon [risks include the dangers of the goal itself or negative feelings if you fail]

4. Surgical interventions related to your identity or how others perceive you (e.g., gender reassignment surgery, or plastic surgery on your body part that you’ve always hated the look of) [risks include the possibility of regret post-surgery, and surgical error and complications]

5. Hormone treatments for gender reassignment [risks include numerous side effects]

6. Forgiving yourself for something bad you’ve done [risks include being less cautious about avoiding the same mistake]

7. Becoming religious or spiritual or quitting your religion [risks include forming false beliefs or being manipulated by others or feeling obligated to engage in practices you don’t like]

8. Committing yourself into an inpatient medical or inpatient mental health treatment center [risks include negative effects from being around sick or mentally unwell patients, not getting the treatment you hoped for, and potentially not being released when you would like to be]

9. Changing your name legally to distance yourself from a past or family that you don’t want to be associated with any more [risks include annoyances around getting all of your identification replaced]

ENVIRONMENTAL

1. Traveling around the world alone [risks include being robbed, kidnapped, injured or killed and contracting serious diseases]

2. Spending a long stretch of time fully in nature (e.g., hike outdoors alone or with a friend for a month, or camp deep in a forest with friends for a month) [risks include injury without being able to get help, contracting serious diseases, being attacked by animals, dissociation and social isolation]

3. Going to Burning Man [risks include dehydration]

4. Quitting a job or career that you hate or switching to one you think you will love [risks include hating your new job or becoming unemployed]

5. Completely changing your living environment (e.g., moving out of your parent’s house, in with friends, into an intentional community, to a different country, going to college/university, etc.) [risks include not liking the new living environment]

6. Becoming financially stable or independent, or getting yourself out of debt

7. Making a change that substantially increases your personal freedom or autonomy (e.g., learning to drive when previously you had no way to get around)

8. Quitting all forms of social media

9. Keeping your physical environment dramatically cleaner/tidier (e.g., see The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up)

10. Trying, at minimum, one new thing you’ve never done before each week, for a few months.

11. Going through military training, or finishing your time in the military [risks include severe psychological changes from military training and death or injury from battle]

12. Declaring bankruptcy if you are broke and owe money [risks including having to liquidate some of your assets, it may stay on your credit history for a decade]

SOCIAL

1. Falling in love, getting married or divorced, starting a new relationship or breaking up with your partner, especially getting out of a toxic or abusive relationship [risks include being rejected or hurt by the person you love, or having your heart broken]

3. Joining a completely different culture than your own (that appeals to you greatly) and immersing yourself in it fully, or learning a second language and living around people who speak it

4. Undergoing an intervention that is planned by your loved ones, for instance for an addiction that you have [risks include damage to your relationships with the people involved]

5. Completely removing harmful people from your life

6. Completely changing your friend group (e.g., to people that are like the person you want yourself to be) [risks include loneliness or social rejection]

7. Getting pregnant / having a child [risks include dying or getting sick during childbirth, not being able to afford the costs of a child, increased stress, the child having genetic conditions that will make he or she suffer, postpartum depression, and challenges with child rearing]

8. Getting a dog or cat or other pet [risks include the animal behaving very badly or dying]

9. Reuniting with people you have been estranged from, forgiving people who have harmed you, making amends with people you have harmed, etc. [risks include letting harmful people back into your life]

10. Allowing yourself to open up to and be much more vulnerable around others when you’ve been closing yourself off or protecting yourself [risks include others taking advantage of your vulnerability]

11. Spending dramatically more time socializing than you do now (especially if you have social anxiety or weak social skills) [risks include social rejection]

12. Learning and practicing a new set of rules for social engagement (e.g., Non-Violent Communication, or DEARMAN from D.B.T.) [risks include learning artificial rules instead of intuitively effective responses]

13. Finding a mentor or a person who completely believes in you and encourages you [risks including being let down by this person or not being able to find anyone to play this role]

14. Experiencing the death of a loved one.

15. Becoming a mentor to someone (e.g., taking on the responsibility of helping them in every way that you can and determining to be their inspiration, guide, role model, confidant, and advocate) [risks include depression or guilt if your mentee is doing badly, or letting your mentee down]

16. Finding a social environment where people are highly supportive of you.

17. Making a substantial effort to improve your relationship with your parents or family members.

If your life is not where you want it to be, and you feel like nothing you are trying has worked, consider one of the extreme interventions above. Perhaps one of these will radically improve your life, as they have done for others. Just be careful to research and take into account the relevant risks!

For example, you have rooms corresponding to aspects of your moral philosophy. On top of these rooms, supported by your moral philosophy, are rooms corresponding to your political philosophy. On top of these are still other rooms, corresponding to your beliefs about political parties. And on top of these, more rooms, containing your beliefs about political candidates. These stack in a tower of politics.

The various rooms and towers of your temple represent everything that you believe. Each room is supported by its columns, and supports the rooms above it. High up rooms rely on many rooms beneath them.

Suppose that you ask someone why he supports a certain political candidate. His brain runs a search algorithm of sorts, looking for an answer that rings true to him that you might also accept. A justification is identified, corresponding to one of the columns in a high up room that contains beliefs about that political candidate.

He tells you this reason. You then point out, rightly, that it is not logically sound. He realizes that you are right (respecting logic, as he does), and the column collapses. Does the whole room of his support for that candidate then collapse? No. There are still twenty other columns in that room, and the one that he showed you was barely supporting any weight. As soon as it was removed, the ceiling of the room merely shifted a centimeter, and the excess weight was redistributed across the remaining columns. You’ve won a fight with no significance, knocked over a non-weight-bearing column. If you ask him why he still supports this candidate, his brain searches again, and provides a different column now as the justification. You could spend hours kicking over columns, without ever putting the structural integrity of the room in jeopardy.

Now, suppose that you locate a critical column in his belief structure. One low in his temple, that carries a great deal of weight. If this column were removed, the nearby columns would not be strong enough to take over its burden. The ceiling of its room would collapse, and the rooms above that are supported by it would have to come crashing down as well. Knocking over this column could destroy an entire tower of his belief structure.

So what happens when you attack this critical column with logic? It doesn’t move. This column is carrying so much weight that it is almost impossible to budge. And while he is mostly unbothered by you kicking down non-weight-bearing columns, he hugs this column tightly as you try to knock it down, and won’t let go. He is not willing to see that tower fall. It took so much work and investment to build it. He doesn’t have any tower that can replace it. His social circle approves of that tower. He’s not sure what life would be like without it. He’s not sure he would be the same person without it. If he doesn’t have logic to use against your argument, he won’t hug the column any less tightly. He’ll resort to logical fallacies, rationalizations, claims that “truth is relative”, cached thoughts, insults, or plugging his ears.

Suppose, however, that before jeopardizing the structural integrity of that tower, you help him build a new one right next to it. This tower is in the same architectural style as the first, but new and clean and sleek. Each room in the old tower corresponds to one of the new tower’s rooms, but the content is different. This new tower has more solid foundations, built on beliefs about the importance of gathering evidence, thinking very carefully, verifying predictions, opening ideas up for criticism, and testing theories.

Now, suppose that when he sees that the construction of this new tower is going well, you point out that he’ll eventually need to clear away the old tower to make enough space to finish the new construction. Then, when he is ready, you help him as he pulls down the old tower’s critical column. Together, you pull, and watch the old tower fall to make way for the new. To help him teardown his tower, you helped him build a new one first.

So remember:

• Sometimes the reasons why people claim they believe are not the reasons that actually matter.
• People will often fight vigorously to prevent their belief structures from crumbling, even in the face of strong evidence against their beliefs.
• Sometimes you need to give a person new beliefs before tearing down their old ones.

We can program ourselves with new habits by following a very simple procedure. If you want to regularly do behavior B after stimulus S occurs, then for a certain number of repetitions you simply need to force yourself to do B just after S every time that S occurs. Over time, the behavior B will start occurring after S automatically and without thought. The more unvaried and frequent the stimulus S is the faster the habit will be to learn. And the more repetitions you do, the stronger the habit will tend to become. If there is no obvious stimulus for you to link the behavior B to, just pick any stimulus that occurs with roughly the frequency that you want to do B. So if you want to do B four times a week, pick a stimulus that naturally occurs about four times a week. You can even use previously learned habits as stimuli. So the habit of combing your hair can use the habit of brushing your teeth as its stimulus.

Typically, people let their habits form automatically. They learned to brush their teeth as soon as they enter the bathroom in the morning because they happened to do that enough times in a row. They learned to get dressed automatically as soon as they pick up a pair of pants because that’s typically what you do after you pick up a pair of paints. They learned to walk a particular route to work without thinking about it because they consciously chose to take that route a sufficiently large number of times. They stop having to think “I should brush my teeth this morning”, or “I should put these pants on that I’m holding on”, or “I should take this particular street to work.” They don’t need to remember to do these behaviors, nor do they need to motivate themselves to do them since they happen automatically without thought.

We tend to view ourselves as being in control of our future decisions. For example, we imagine that we can choose, if we so desire, to suddenly start engaging in healthier eating. And yet, for many of us, years will go by with us failing to make or maintain many of the life changes that we believe to be important. We simultaneously maintain both the view that we want to behave in a healthier fashion and that we have the ability to consciously control our behavior, and yet this pair of beliefs ends up being inconsistent with the way we actually behave.

One of the reasons we fail to change is that controlling future conscious behavior is much more difficult than pledging to change future behavior. Sure, when there is no cake in front of you it is easy to tell yourself that you will eat healthier. But when you begin to salivate your priorities change. The closer your face is to chocolate cake, the more you are likely to value the deliciousness of that cake compared to your health. You right now sitting far away from cake is sacrificing little to make a pledge to avoid it. You right now aren’t giving up anything tangible to make that pledge. But in order to keep that pledge, you when you are in front of the cake has to give up delicious enjoyment. It is easy for you who just eat the cake half an hour ago to regret the decision. That version of you doesn’t get to experience the deliciousness of the cake (except as a faint memory), but does have to live with the extra empty calories. But for you currently staring at the cake, the decision is much harder.

Sometimes where willpower fails, subconscious behavior can succeed. If telling yourself day after day that you should exercise more doesn’t work, try turning exercise into a habit instead. Buy some weights or an exercise video, and every morning as soon as you leave the bathroom having just brushed your teeth, immediately begin your exercise routine. At first, you may not remember to do this, or may find it difficult to muster up the willpower. So post a big, noticeable piece of paper on your bathroom door as a reminder, block the time out in advance in your calendar, tell your roommate to remind you, and whenever you aren’t in the mood to do the exercise, remind yourself that skipping it this one time may significantly reduce the habit formation (so there is more at stake than just this one day of exercise). Make sure that you begin the routine immediately after exactly the same stimulus each day (teeth brushing in this example). Once you’ve done this enough days in a row (ten or fifteen times is probably enough) you will find yourself automatically getting ready to exercise as soon as the stimulus is over. You no longer will have to worry about remembering to do it, and you won’t have to fight with yourself to get in the mood. When the habit is strong enough, you’ll just find yourself walking over to your weights and picking them up.

Or suppose that you want to start eating healthier. This begins with keeping healthy food around the house. So train a habit of immediately buying your five favorite very healthy foods as soon as you enter the supermarket. Always grab them from the shelves in the same order, as that will make the habit form faster, and make you less likely to forget any of the items. Once you’ve completed enough repetitions, you’ll start doing it automatically as soon as you come through those supermarket doors. As far as training yourself to eat these foods goes, design a habit so that, right after you finish your exercise routine each morning, you immediately go to the fridge and grab one of these healthy foods for your breakfast. Only these five pre-selected healthy foods are allowed. You don’t want to have to think carefully about which foods are acceptably healthy (habit formation should involve tasks that don’t require conscious analysis). Soon you’ll find yourself eating at least one healthy meal per day without effort.

Want to raise your mood in the mornings? Build a habit of smiling for twenty seconds just as you get out of bed (make the smile as realistic as possible, including the crinkling of skin around the eyes, and you’ll notice your mood rise immediately). Want to remember to shave exactly once a week? Always do it just after you get home from your Saturday yoga class. Want to read more? Do it for 20 minutes immediately upon arriving home from work each day.

Habits are quite easy to form, and are capable of powerfully altering future behavior. With only a bit of effort, we can purposely design habits that will improve our lives.